Contractors' insurance cover

Find the right kind of cover for you

While there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ contractor insurance policy, a lot of contract workers choose to take out employer’s liability insurance. This type of insurance is required by law if you own a company, the only exception to this is if you are the sole owner/employee.

Any additional insurance contractors need depends entirely on the type of work and nature of their clients. Contractor public liability insurance can often be purchased alongside employer’s liability and protects contractors from claims made by a third party. Limited Company owners often opt for a contractor insurance package to optimally protect themselves. Public sector clients increasingly require contractors’ indemnity insurance coverage, which covers you for any negligence claim brought against your business.

If you’re affiliated with an umbrella company, their umbrella insurance may cover you and is commonly comprised of professional indemnity and public liability insurance for contractors.

You can find out the cost of liability insurance for an independent contractor by searching for it individually or as part of a broader insurance package.

Using our contractor insurance comparison tool will help you determine the most cost-effective level of cover for your needs.

Frequently asked questions

How much does contractors' insurance cost?

There are so many different types of insurance that it’s difficult to estimate how much you’ll pay without looking at the particularities of your contracting business. Quotes for limited company insurance for instance, can differ quite dramatically.

How much will a public liability insurance policy cost?

The cost of public liability insurance for contractors depends broadly on four things:

Your profession

Inevitably, the cost of something like UK public liability insurance is affected by the kind of work that you do. If your contract work involves working with dangerous machinery then you’ll pay more than someone who’s largely desk-bound.

Your company’s annual turnover

The larger your turnover, the more likely it is that your contractor liability insurance premium will be higher.

Your claims history

Cheap public liability insurance will be most readily available to those who have never had cause to make a claim.

Potential liability for public injury

If you work in a profession where there’s a lot of public footfall, then the chances of an accident occurring are increased, which will increase your premium.

How much will a professional indemnity (PI) policy cost?

The cost of an indemnity insurance policy is well worth the professional protection you receive. This is especially true if you work in an industry where clients are likely to take action against you if you make a mistake that costs them money. The price of the insurance you take out will depend on the following factors:

The needs of your client

Some clients make contractor indemnity insurance mandatory. If this is the case, they will name a minimum amount of cover.

The requirements of any professional body

Often the conditions of such a membership include a requirement for indemnity insurance – if this is true for you it’s worth contacting them and asking what level of professional indemnity insurance you need.

Your personal assessment

If a client successfully sued you for lost profits or damages, you need to be sure your insurance would cover the sum total – the cheapest public liability insurance might not be a bargain if you find yourself in court.

What insurance does a contractor need?

Unless you own a limited company, insurance is an optional expenditure, but as you will see, it is regarded by most industries as an essential part of running a contracting business.

Do I need public liability insurance?

In the UK, liability insurance (also known as PLI or third party liability insurance) is not a legal necessity but all umbrella companies do require their employees to be PLI policyholders. Many independent contractors also choose to take out PLI, especially if they travel to a client’s premises or use equipment that could cause injury to a member of the public. Increasingly, public-facing clients require their contractors to have a public liability insurance policy, so check with your client as to their minimum requirement.

Do I need professional indemnity insurance?

Professional indemnity insurance is not required by UK law but it does protect you if a client decides to sue you for negligence or damage to their business. Like PLI, professional indemnity insurance is increasingly expected by clients, who expect contractor insurance to be comprehensive. Professional indemnity is a particularly useful form of IT contractor insurance as it protects against liability for common mishaps like equipment failure and data loss.

Do I need employer's insurance?

Under the terms of The Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969, If you own a limited company with one or more employees, you are legally required to take out employers insurance of no less than £5 million. However, if you have one employee only and that employee is a family member and/or owns at least half of the company’s share capital, you are exempt from this law.

Download our Guide to Insurance

We’ve put together a guide that cuts through the jargon of the insurance world. So, whether you’re an accountant or IT contractor, tradesperson or financial consultant, we can help you find the best deal on a policy that fits your needs.

Privacy Notice

Contractor Supermarket Limited Limited (hereafter called Contractor Supermarket Limited) respects your privacy and will process your data in a fair and lawful way. This privacy notice outlines the way in which Contractor Supermarket Limited collects, processes and shares your data and how long we retain it for.

Where we get our data from We will received your data from:
Directly from you via phone, email or on our website; Introducers; Suppliers; Analytics providers; Advertising networks; Search information providers; Companies house; Electoral register; Land registry and Other publicly available sources.

What we use the information forWe will use the data for:
Providing you with the services that you have requested from ourselves; Marketing and market research; Fraud prevention and processing payments to third parties.

Contractor Supermarket Limited may from time to time use aggregated, or redacted data for any purpose. Although this comes from your personal data it is not considered personal data, as it does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity, and we are free to use this at any time.

Legal basis for processing data

Contractor Supermarket Limited will process personal data for the purposes already stated on one or more of the following legal basis:

Consent – you have consented to us using your personal data by adding your details to our website and reading this privacy notice. You can withdraw consent at any time by directing an email to [email protected];

Contractual obligation– It is necessary for us to process your data to perform the contract between Contractor Supermarket Limited and yourself, or to take any necessary steps at your request prior to entering into this contract;

Legal obligations – we may need to process data in order to fulfil Legal obligations for example audit purposes;

Legitimate interests – we may use your personal data to operate, promote or improve our services or use your data for analytics or in order to protect our business.

Contractor Supermarket Limited will use your data for the purpose for which it was collected, unless we consider that we reasonably need to use it for another reason, if that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we would like to use your data for any other purposes we will notify you and provide explanation as to the legal basis under which we will be able to use your data.

Data retention
Contractor Supermarket Limited will only keep your data:
As long as necessary to fulfil our contractual obligations or As long as necessary to fulfil legal and regulatory obligations

Contractor Supermarket Limited will determine the length of time we can keep your data by considering the above and:

Potential risk from unauthorised use or disclosure; the purposes for which we process your data and If we can achieve the same results some other way without requiring your data

We may anonymise your data allowing us to retain for as long as we wish as it can no longer be associated to yourself.

Transfer of data
Contractor Supermarket Limited ensure that there are adequate jurisdictional data protection regulations in place should your data be transferred outside of the EEA(you will be informed if this is necessary), Your data is currently stored inside the EEA and Contractor Supermarket Limited have data protection policies, procedures and safeguards in place to protect the security of your data.

Your rights You have the right:

To be informed– we will tell you when we collect data what we are going to do with it, primarily through this privacy notice;

Of access – you can contact Contractor Supermarket Limited in righting to request the information that we hold about you;

To Erasure – you can ask for your information to be deleted( this is not an absolute right and will depend on any legal restrictions) We will keep a list of your wish to be deleted to ensure you do not end up in our database again at any future time;

To rectification – you can ask for any information to be amended if it is inaccurate or incomplete;

To restrict processing – tells us to stop processing your data but allows us to keep hold of it for other agreed purposes;

To data portability – to transfer information to another business at your request (most used for instance such as changing bank accounts);

To object – to use of your data for marketing and profiling for marketing purposes. Our Legitimate interests do not outweigh your rights and freedoms, therefore you can cease us processing based on our legitimate interests;

To withdraw consent – you may withdraw consent to the processing of your data at any time, you can withdraw this consent by emailing or calling the following: [email protected], +353 71 932 0877;

To complain – if Contractor Supermarket Limited do not satisfactorily deal with your complaint you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Data Security
Contractor Supermarket Limited take data protection responsibilities very seriously and have ensured that your data is treated fairly, lawfully and with the respect it deserves. Contractor Supermarket Limited have took adequate measures to protect your data from being accidently lost, used, accessed or disclosed in any way that has not been authorised . We have these procedures in place to prevent breaches, however we shall inform you and the relevant regulatory bodies should any data breach occur.